The world’s best bike racer was just kicked out of the Tour de France

Cavendish tried to come around sprint rival Sagan but was knocked into the barriers and onto the ground hard.NBCSN

VITTEL, France — Double road world champion cyclist Peter Sagan has been kicked out of the Tour de France.

It happened after he was involved in a nasty crash on the race’s fourth stage on Tuesday that sent star sprinter Mark Cavendish into the barriers and onto the ground.

The official announcement came from the Tour organizers just after 7 p.m. local time in Vittel, about an hour after the stage had finished.

Cavendish was taken to the hospital with shoulder and finger injuries after crashing to the ground when Sagan shoved him into the metal safey barriers 100 meters from the finish of the 207.5km stage from Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel, AFP reported.

“We’ve decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 as he endangered some of his colleagues seriously in the final metres of the sprint which happened in Vittel,” said the president of the race commission, Philippe Marien.

“We will apply article 12.104 of the rules of the UCI… in which case commissaires (the race jury) can decide to enforce a judgement to disqualify a rider.”

It all happened after a quiet day of racing that eventually saw the sprinters’ teams setting up their fast men for the finale. As the leaders raced for the finish line at speeds approaching 40 mph, Cavendish tried to come around sprint rival Sagan but was knocked into the barriers and onto the ground hard.

To make matters worse, two trailing riders could not avoid Cavendish and went over the fallen rider as Frenchman Arnaud Démare crossed the line first to win his first-ever stage at the Tour.

Cavendish said Sagan had to explain his actions, according to AFP.

“I was just following Demare round, and then Sagan just came over,” he added. “I get on with Peter well but I don’t get it. If he came across it’s one thing, but the elbow? I’m not a fan of him putting his elbow in like that. I get on with Peter a crash is a crash, but I’d just like to know about the elbow.”

Cavendish’s sports director at Dimension Data, Roger Hammond, told journalists: “If I was Sagan, I’d apologise for that.” Fellow sprinter Andre Greipel of Germany accused Sagan of doing the same thing to him the previous day.

“Yesterday it was the same thing in the intermediate sprint he gave an elbow to Andre,” Greipel’s Lotto-Soudal team manager Marc Sergeanttold Eurosport.

Sagan won the past two road world championships and is widely regarded as the top rider of his generation.

He is a multiple Tour-stage winner and five-time winner of the Tour’s green jersey, which is awarded to the race’s most consistent daily finisher.

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